Behind Every Great EMT…

Call it a curiosity. I wanted to know how the EMT Spot readers would finish the sentence, “Behind every great EMT…” So I asked.

I asked on twitter. I asked on Facebook. I even asked right here at the blog. And the answers poured in. Your responses represented the full spectrum of personalities that inhabit our workplace. There were poignant responses, cynical responses and a bunch of funny ones. The responses made me smile and frown and think.

Within this list of answers you’ll find feedback from 30+ year EMS veterans and newbies just getting their EMS feet wet. Everyone is represented. And the responses are telling.

I’m rather proud of how this little experiment turned out. I hope you find these responses as enjoyable and thought provoking as I did. Thanks for all your contributions. Aside from categorizing these contributions, I’ve made no further editorial additions. This post will become part of the guest posts category, because it was written by you.

Complete the sentence, “Behind every great EMT…”

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The May 2010 Handover Blog Carnival

“And That’s When It All Came Together”

There are moments in life when everything clicks. Synchronicity. Poetry in motion. Bliss. Those moments on our journey when the map suddenly seems so clear and our destination so much closer. It can be a moment of insight or learning, a realignment of our priorities or perhaps just a stunning instant of clarity. Regardless, they are sacred moments in our human experience.

This month, in true EMT Spot fashion, I asked EMS bloggers from around the world to share with you their sacred moments of clarity when everything came together. I hope you enjoy the stories of these fellow travelers. All of us share the experience of stumbling down life’s road looking for a signpost to point the way. One of the most amazing things about breakthroughs is that they help us to point the way for others who follow.

Each of these stories is a sign post in-and-of itself. It’s impossible to tell the story of your own breakthrough without becoming a teacher to the weary traveler who chooses to listen. Perhaps that’s what makes these moments sacred.

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How Being Burnt Out Can Ignite A Rebirth

A Guest Post By Jim Hoffman

“The EMS Professional,” “The Paramedic Mentor,” Today’s guest author, Jim Hoffman has more nicknames than a retiring prizefighter and he’s earned every one of them. From the streets of The Big Apple to New Jersey and now the secluded mountains of upstate New York, Jim has been a paramedic for the better part of two decades.

In his down time, Jim runs EMS-Safety.com, a one stop shop for low cost EMS training resources. He’s also part of the team behind The EMS Boot Camp series. After a little cajoling I talked Jim into letting me post his Handover contribution as a guest post. So this is me, stealing all of Jim’s literary  goodness for you. (Thank me later.)

And now Jim:

As an EMT in a large EMS system I found myself becoming burnt and indifferent to the patients I was responding to and treating; all too often being annoyed at the calls that obviously just didn’t require an ambulance and more often didn’t even require a doctor.

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The Non-Conformists’ Guide is Here!

I’ve gone live with the book and newsletter sign up and it appears that everything is running smoothly. I’ve already had a half dozen sign-ups and the link has only been posted for a few minutes.

Thanks for your patience. This writing project took me nearly six months to finish. I had an idea of what I wanted this book to be and I wasn’t willing to stop until I’d succeeded.

The result is The Non-Conformists’ Guide to EMS Success. This is no pamphlet or power point slide show. This is 48 pages, almost 16,000 words, and chapter after chapter of compelling ideas designed to challenge the way you think about your job, your leadership, your life, and your role in EMS. And it’s all free.

If you’re ready to stop listening to me talking about it and get the book for yourself, just click the newsletter sign-up at left. The EMT Spot practices a strict, double opt-in, anti-spam policy. We’ll never reveal your e-mail to anyone, ever.

You’ll receive an e-mail confirming that you really did sign up for Splatter and the e-book. Once you click the confirmation link you’ll received your welcome edition of Splatter and the .pdf version of the e-book will be attached. It’s as simple as that.

The newsletter will also have an opt-out link at the bottom if you’d rather not be on the newsletter mailing list. (But I hope you’ll decide to stay)

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Back In The Day

A Guest Post By: Chris Framstead

If you’ve worked in EMS anywhere near the Denver Metro area in the last 20 years you’re probably going to really like today’s offering by EMT Spot guest author Chris Framstead. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Chris for over a decade now and I’ve hounded him to put his fingers to the keys for The Spot. Chris is an uncomparable teacher and an insatiable student of all things EMS. Is his twenty year career he has been an EMT, a paramedic,  a firefighter, an EMS administrator, a chemical weapons and explosives specialist and a teacher at various colleges around the nation.

Today Chris is the International Training Coordinator for the famed Texas Engineering Extension Services, the worlds largest emergency responder training facility and a division of Texas A+M. If you happen to be one of the 80,000 responders who pass through the facility for one training or another, you might run in to Chris. Buy him a cup of coffee and ask how things were … back in the day.

Back in the Day

I’ve been in EMS and fire service for twenty years now, and have been a certified EMS provider for the past eighteen years. Over this time (which is not all that long compared to my other friends in the Denver system who have been playing the game a lot longer), I have seen a lot of change. Lately I’ve heard, what feels like, a lot of brand spanking new, right off the lot new Paramedics, and EMT-Basics, standing outside the EMS classroom, or outside the volunteer fire station, talking about “back in the day”. I have to laugh, not to belittle their stories, but because “back in the day” to a twenty year old EMT-Basic, was….well…..2007. So my mind started racing and memories started flowing, as I thought back to my wonderful career and the “back in the day” memories I have.

So as I was sitting in my kitchen this morning drinking my first (of many) cups of coffee….and I thought…what a cool article….”back in the day”. I am certain if I presented this article title to any one of my friends who have been around the Denver system for as long, or longer than myself, they we could easily write a book about “back in the day”. I simply had my memories flowing this morning and wanted to share them with you readers, in hopes of striking up your memories of “back in the day”.

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EMS Response To Sexual Assault

A Guest Post By: Jimmy Futrelle

The EMT Spot would like to welcome Jimmy Futrelle to our guest post roster. Jimmy s a Paramedic hailing from Scurry County Texas. Jimmy has been responding on calls long enough to remember the Lifepack 5 and using D50 as a diagnostic tool. His unique background working for private and public EMS as well as for local law enforcement makes him uniquely qualified to teach on the subject of sexual assault.

This detailed guide to responding to these challenging calls is well worth reading. I sincerely thank him for this contribution.   

Responding To Sexual Assault

Introduction

Sexual assault is possibly the most devastating form of assault perpetrated on another human being.  The legal definition of sexual assault is “any genital, anal or oral penetration by a part of the accused’s body or by an object, using force or without the victim’s consent.”

The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey reports that over 500,000 women and approximately 49,000 men report being sexually assaulted each year. It is estimated that 1 in 5 women will victims of rape by the time they are 21 years of age.  61% of reported rape victims are less than 18 years old. 1 in 7 women will be raped by their partners. Only 16% of rapes are ever reported to the police.

Let us not confuse sexual assault with sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is repeated instances of sexual assault occurring over a period of time, generally by a person familiar to the victim. Whereas this crime is no less devastating, we are going to focus on the act of sexual assault.

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The Greatest Generation

A Guest Post By: Matthew Bergland

Matthew is a street paramedic from Colorado Springs, Colorado. I first met Matt well over a decade ago when he was an EMT for Pridemark Paramedic Services. Today he is a flight medic for Memorial Star Helicopter and also works with American Medical Response. I think Matt’s story deserves a place in “The Big Get It” category here at the spot.

In this piece Matt expresses the frustrations that many of us working in EMS feel each day, as well as an insightful revelation about the value of human beings and the meaning of service.

The Greatest Generation

I have been in EMS for fifteen years. I say this not to evoke in the reader some undeserved sense of awe in my longevity, rather to illustrate the depth of my ability to be exceedingly grumpy and “burned out” when it comes to the more routine aspects of pre-hospital EMS. To expand on this sentiment I’ll provide you with what is, most likely, a common thread throughout our industry.

I work long hours and I am expected to stay past my off time should the EMS system be busy. The pay is less than glamorous and I am routinely forced to sacrifice time with my family to spend time at work to make ends meet. Many times it is very difficult to even eat because we are so busy. To add insult to injury the lion’s shares of my “emergency” patients are drunks, psychs, sore throats and headaches. That being said, I also routinely stand witness to people that have been devastated by illness or injury and the impact that it has on their families.

Many people take advantage of the fact that we provide the care we do. They have no room in their criticisms for the understanding of our sacrifices and the constant training and hardship that we endure to bring our skill to their side. The expectation of those that we serve is, many times, far too high. When you fall short of those unreasonable expectations people tend to take it out on you in a personal manner. We all endure these high prices for our commitment to humanity.

It is easy to become cynical by these long hours and lack of sleep, food, family contact and human suffering. The sound of ambulance tones indicating another call no longer excites me. It merely means more work, less sleep and the potential to take on more of other people’s problems or misery. Many times it means another assault or traffic accident. Often it’s another gang banger that has been shot or stabbed. But more often it is a nursing home patient. It is with this patient population that I have found myself becoming very frustrated at the prospect of another sick, elderly person and have struggled, at times, shore up my compassion so as not to inadvertently treat these patients from the context of that frustration.

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Think You’ve Got What It Takes?

So you’ve been reading around and you like the site. And there’s this thought rattling around in the back of your brain, “I know something that would be perfect for one of these articles.” Great.

Would you like to be a guest author on The EMT Spot?

On Friday, I’ll be posting “The Greatest Generation“ a piece by Matthew Bergland of Colorado Springs. Matt talks about remembering the sacrifices of our elderly population and the great debt we owe to them. You could be next to publish something right here.

Read about my mission and send me an E-mail with your idea and I’ll send you our author guidelines. If you’ve got something to write that would be helpful to professional EMT’s let me know about it! I’d bet you have many valuable offerings rolling around in that head and I’d love to put them all right here.

Send me an e-mail at steve (at) theemtspot (dot) com.

I can’t wait to hear your idea.

Steve